1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to medical image processing, and more particularly, to a system and method for visualizing airways for assessment.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Chest scans obtained from high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scanners contain a wealth of data that is time consuming for physicians to interpret. For example, the number of slices acquired per patient in HRCT datasets makes it difficult for physicians to evaluate the extent of certain pulmonary diseases such as bronchiectasis, asthma or emphysema in a timely fashion.
These pulmonary diseases are characterized by abnormalities in airway dimensions, including airway wall thickness and lumen diameter. HRCT has become one of the primary means to depict these abnormalities as the availability of high-resolution near-isotropic data makes it possible to evaluate airways at angles that are oblique to a scanning plane. However, clinical evaluation of the airways is generally limited to visual inspection.
Although various tools have been developed to perform airway measurements such as airway wall thickness and lumen diameter, the majority of these tools rely on manual selection of points of interest. Further, even when fully automatic measurements are performed, such quantitative data is generally visualized in a two-dimensional (2D) fashion.